Léon Marchand smashes the short course 200m medley world record

The French swimmer broke Ryan Lochte's world record, which dated from 2012, by achieving 1'48''88 during the third stage of the Short Course Swimming World Cup on Thursday in Singapore.

A shock wave in the Singapore swimming pool. After the European record for the 100m medley on Thursday, Léon Marchand beat Ryan Lochte's world record (1'49''63 in 2012), in the 200m medley event by achieving 1'48 ''88 during the third and final stage of the Short Course World Cup in Singapore, Friday November 1st. The Frenchman was ahead of the Briton Duncan Scott (1'51''14) and the Italian Alberto Razzetti (1'52''99) on the podium.

With this new performance, the 22-year-old French swimmer became the first man to go under 1'49 in the history of swimming. “It was exciting for me, I really tried to do something that has never been done before. I tried to push as much as possible in my limits and my casts, and the crowd pushed me a lot, it reminded me of the Paris Games”explained Léon Marchand.

Over this distance, he achieved 1'50''30 during the first stage in Shanghai (China) on October 19, a new European record now improved, before achieving 1'50''91 in Incheon (South Korea). ), a week later. If the long course world record (1'54''00), also held by Ryan Lochte since 2011, still resists him, it is undoubtedly only a matter of time for the Olympic long distance champion pool at the Paris Olympics (in 1'54''06).

After achieving the triple 100, 200, 400 m during the first two stages, the quadruple Olympic champion in Paris maintains an insolent pace before the final day of this World Cup, Saturday, where he will be entered in particular in the 400 m four swims.